Need your opinion

[Renamon]

I am planning on putting a radio in my car (91 buick century, lol) finally, and the radio I was planning to put in was a 110w astro spectra vhf.

Doing a little reading, I am finding that the radio pulls something like 25-30 amps on tx . I was going to wire it directly to the battery, but I don't want to kill my car.

Now, I live in northern california (tahoe/truckee) and will be using both analog and IMBE (<-- some, not much), so I figured the more power the better (with digital and mountains and all), but now I am second guessing my whole plan of attack.

Your thoughts?

[n7maq]

You do want to run B+ directly to your battery, the ground should go to a good ground close to the radio. A 25 to 30 amp draw should not hurt your car if every this is up to par.


Jim

[Bill_G]

If the Buick stays parked for several days at a time, then you should consider a battery cutoff switch in the A+ line since there is a small constant drain even when the radio is "off". As for xmit current, with a high power radio, it's always best to run the engine if you plan in extended conversations.

[Batwings21]

We used to install 110w low band mitrek's and maratrac's in compact cars for the DOT supervisors. They never had issues, just keep the engine running when transmitting a lot. And don't sit in the dark with your high beams on, transmitting on the radio with your hazards/whacker lights on, rolling your power windows up and down constantly just for the hell of it and you shouldn't have battery issues.

[Bill_G]

ha! zactly.